Recovery from deep shame requires shifting the focus from personal merit (deserving) to spiritual grace (receiving). — Anonymous. – Talks B.

And we welcome you back to Recovery Coast to Coast, the only program in America on the air five nights a week, two hours a night, talking about addiction with a focus on recovery. We're going to be talking to Pat Summerall. What a great career he has had. Forty-five years in broadcasting, he has broadcast all or part of 26 Super Bowls, covered every major sporting event, has worked for CBS, Fox and ESPN, is still going strong with the liver of a 13-year-old young man. He went into treatment for alcoholism back in 1992 at the Betty Ford Treatment Center following the 1992 Masters Tournament and an intervention that basically turned his life around. It was in Augusta that he looked into the mirror in a guest house and saw what others were seeing. He's been in recovery for 14 years, had knee replacement surgery back in 2000. A year later, following some dental work, forgetting to take some antibiotics, infection invaded his body. It taxed the organs, especially the liver. his health worsened to the point where he rose to the top of the transplant list. Not because of his name or his stature, but because he had the worst liver in the country and was the closest to death. April 10th, 2004, he had a highly successful liver transplant, receiving the gift of life from a young 13-year-old boy, Adrian Shelby, from Arkansas. After his physical recovery from the transplant, combined with his ongoing recovery from alcoholism, his increasing faith in God, and the miracles granted to him, And he's written a riveting memoir called On and Off the Air, published by Thomas Nelson Books. And we are delighted tonight to welcome broadcasting legend Pat Semerle. Good evening, Pat. How are you? I'm good. How about you? I'm just absolutely delighted to be able to talk to you tonight. I recently emceed a day-long celebration of sobriety for National Alcohol and Drug Recovery Month and talked about the importance of putting a face and a voice on recovery. And I held up your book, Pat, and told people that if you want to see the face of recovery, The joy, the grace, the wonder, and the miracle. Just look at the face of the man on the cover of this book. One picture is worth a thousand words, and it certainly epitomizes the joy of recovery. And even if you don't buy the book, which, by the way, I highly recommend that you do because it's a great read, at least take a few minutes to look into the faceofrecovery. Pat, the book is an incredible rollercoaster ride from the heights of success on that national stage to the doors of death, bloated to up to 300 pounds and given just hours to live. If you were truly touched, Pat, make that embraced by the loving arms of God. How are you today? What are you doing today? I feel better, first to answer the question. I feel besser than I've felt since I was in my teens almost. I can't tell you how good I feel and how good my health is. And what I'm doing is trying to spread the word about how recovery is, how an association and acceptance from the church is, from Christ, from being accepted into God's family. I'm doing what I can to spread that word and tell how great recovery is. Say thank you for the blessing I received in that liver transplant. We have a number of emails in anticipation of your visit tonight from around the country that we're going to get to. An email coming in from Jim from Worcester, Massachusetts. Pat, when did you first realize that you had a drinking problem? Oh, I think at the intervention. People had told me, a number of people, executives at CBS and other people, a number OF people that work with me on a daily basis, had said to me, why don't you slow down a little bit? People are watching you. We think you're drinking too much. But I just didn't take any heed. i thought that whatever if there was a problem i could i could manage it myself and then there was an intervention and in which there were 15 people who read letters to me that they had written people that i respected and in some cases feared even because of their business positions and they told me of things that they had seen me do and things that uh they thought i would be ashamed of and they were indeed right and thank goodness i listened to them they said They had a plane waiting for me to take me to the Betty Ford Clinic in Palm Springs. And if I would go for treatment, and thank goodness I accepted the invitation or the demand, and that saved my life because I did go. Tom Brookshire was involved in that intervention, wasn't he? Right, he was. And you went into there thinking you were going into a meeting, and there you find these 15 people who love and care for you. Right. And you go there, but upon arriving at Betty Ford, some of the anger starts setting in. Well, I was angry at the initial meeting. I was angrier than a lot of the people who were there because I thought these guys, what are they doing telling me what to do because they have more problems than I do. I didn't realize at the time that they were trying to help, that they weren't befriending me. And so I was bitter about that and angry about that. And it took me a while to get over the anger. I'm Neal Scott. The program is Recovery Coast to Coast. Pat Summerall, our guest this evening. An email from Sandra in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. How has your relationships changed with those who were your drinking buddies back then? Well, the people that were drinking buddies were in some cases good friends. And those people who fit into that category are still very close and very good friends The drinking buddies, who were just drinking buddies I don't know where they are or what's happened to them They've dropped me and I have new friends I remember our acquaintances and what we did in those days but I don't ever see the people again. So the true friends are still true friends. The drinking buddies are no longer around. What was your treatment experience like at Betty Ford? Well, in the beginning, as I said, they kept me five extra days because I was so angry. So I really didn't hear much of what was said or I didn't absorb much ofwhat the teaching was about for the first five days. And after that anger started to subside and I started to forgive a few people. I started to listen to what the recovery people said and thank goodness I did because that saved my life. The treatment itself at first I thought this doesn't apply to me I don't want to listen this and then as I began to realize that it did apply to be and that I could get some help from a higher power then it started to help and then the messages started to be accepted in my mind, and I accepted that there was a higher power and that there was indeed a source of power for me to tap. Albert in San Diego writes, wants to know, once you left treatment, was there ever a relapse? And how do you deal with the compulsion to drink? Well, I've been very fortunate in that area. No, there's never been a relapsed. I haven't had a drink since I left the doors of the Betty Ford Center. I have had no craving. I've bee very fortunate from what I hear talking to other alcoholics. I'm very fortunate I never had a craving. I've never wanted another drink. I've ever wanted to go back to that atmosphere, so I've been blessed in that area. You had to make obviously significant changes upon leaving treatment, and you dealt in the book, and the book by the way is called On and Off the Air by Pat Summerall. You dealt very tenderly and very lovingly with a decision that you made coming out of treatment in terms of your marriage. I wanted to get married. I wanted it to go bad. I wanted her to make it work. I went back and I sincerely tried, but I had done so much damage not only to my wife with my conduct, but to my kids as well. I legitimately tried very hard to make it work, but she couldn't find it in her heart to forgive me, and I just couldn't put the pieces back together. I tried very harder. And there was another piece of that, Pat, and that was a love that you had for Sherry. I had met Cherry, to whom I'm married now. I had bet her, and we had a tenderness. We had a relationship that couldn't be replaced. I just couldn't get that relationship out of my heart, and thank goodness I didn't. Pat Summerall joining us tonight on Recovery Coast to Coast. An email from Jennifer in Albany, New York. Was there negative reaction for people who found out that you were getting a liver after being an alcoholic? Not so much. I had a tough time justifying it in my own mind that I was getting another chance, that I Was getting an organ from somebody who had to die for me to live. I had lived a long and full and tough life in some cases, and there was some doubt in my own mind if I deserved a chance for another liver for another life and that was answered I think largely by two people who were standing at the foot of my bed after the operation was a success and I asked these two preachers these two ministers who were standig at the footh of the bed if they felt or why did they feel I deserved another chance and they both said as if they'd practiced the answer together in unison they said because god's not through with you yet and thank goodness he's not thank goodness she wasn't because that's what i've been trying to do since i got the liver transplant steven providence has written in he wants to know how is being a celebrity in recovery helped others have people with addiction problems called you for help knowing that you are in fact successful in your recovery every time i walk through an airport every time i'm at a stadium uh every time i'm in a public event uh people come to me and say we have a friend in common and when i say who they say you know who they said bill w and they asked that they tell me that they're searching uh they need help what can i do or else they're in recovery and uh they want me to know that they'RE sharing the same problems that i had So, yes, it's helped greatly, I think. And for me to go public and me to be willing to discuss it, I think has certainly had a profound effect. It's great therapy for me. Jillian in Miami, Florida. What advice can you give a family member whose loved one is dying from the disease and refuses to seek help? It's my dad, and I know he's going to die if he doesn't get help. And I think until your dad or anyone realizes that they have a problem and they realize that there is help, but I think the toughest person to be honest with, I know the toughest person for an individual to be honestly with, is themselves. And until you realize and admit that you do have a problems, no amount of counseling and no amount of consultation is going to help until you accept the fact that, hey, I've got a problem and I am an alcoholic and I need somebody to help me. What about intervention? Obviously, that helped for you. Oh, it saved my life. Intervention is a possibility if the person, if the individual is willing to accept that help and that love. Another person who went through a similar situation, both in terms of addiction, recovery, and liver transplant was your good friend Mickey Mantle. Right. Talk a little bit about him and about what happened in his situation. Mickey and I played a lot of golf together. We were very close friends. And after I went to the Betty Ford Center, he obviously saw the change that took place in me. We were no longer drinking buddies. We were just good friends. And so he started to ask me questions about what it was like, what recovery was like what it was like at the Betty Ford Center. And I knew, although he didn't want to admit it, I knew from the beginning that he was asking me more and more about recovery and more and More about what went on at the Benny Ford Center and finally one day he asked me if I thought I could get him into the center and I did through some friends that I had made there. I got him a bed at the Barry Ford Center and it worked for him for the last 18 months. He didn't have another drink, but he had done so much damage. In fact, he got a liver transplant, which was successful, but they discovered while they were making the liver transplant that I believe that he already had cancer, and it just continued to spread. So he only lived 18 months, but for the last 18 months after he had the transplant, he didn't even have a drink for the past 18 months that he lived. The book again is on and off the air, Penn Summerall. The front cover is a picture of Pat, and again, if you look into the face of Pat Summerall, you're looking into the Face of Recovery. The former NFL commissioner, Paul Tagliabue, says Pat Summerill's remarkable take is a great success story that includes all the ups and downs of real life, and I will conclude the interview by sharing the final passage on the last page of the book. It was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed. Pat, you are an amazing man. You're a great ambassador for recovery. And when people hear you, when they see you, it brings inspiration into their lives and you continue to save lives one day at a time, one alcoholic at a Time. On behalf of all the listeners who listen to Recovery Coast to Coast, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for that. Thank you very much for this opportunity.